Salah and Konate decisions made as Liverpool confirm 20-player squad for Marseille fixture
Liverpool have confirmed their 20-player squad for the Champions League fixture away to Marseille on Wednesday night.
The Reds flew out from John Lennon Airport earlier this afternoon, with Arne Slot due to hold his pre-match press conference in the south of France later on Tuesday evening.
Despite losing twice in the tournament so far this season, a win for the Merseysiders at the Stade Velodrome would put them in a very strong position to finish in the top eight of the league phase and advance directly to the round of 16, bypassing the knockout play-offs in February.
Liverpool confirm travelling squad for Marseille match
At 3:30pm on Tuesday afternoon, Liverpool confirmed the list of 20 players who’ve flown out to Marseille on their official website.
Mo Salah is included after training with the squad earlier today, having returned from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Ibrahima Konate is absent, though, with James Pearce reporting (via X) that the 26-year-old is ‘back in France for family reasons’.
While the defender wasn’t named in the squad list by LFC, it ‘remains to be seen’ whether he’ll link up with his teammates before the 8pm kick-off tomorrow night.
Full Liverpool squad to face Marseille: Alisson, Gomez, Endo, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Wirtz, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Salah, Chiesa, Jones, Gakpo, Ekitike, Mamardashvili, Robertson, Woodman, Frimpong, Gravenberch, Nyoni, Ngumoha.
Can Salah make an immediate goalscoring return for Liverpool?
When the team sheet is announced 75 minutes before kick-off on Wednesday, all eyes will immediately be looking out to see if Salah is included in a Liverpool starting XI for the first time in nearly two months, having lost his place in the team prior to AFCON.
John Aldridge believes that the Egyptian winger ‘will want to prove a point‘ after the cloud under which he departed for the African tournament, having given an explosive public interview following the 3-3 draw at Leeds in early December.
Even when accounting for his absence over the past few weeks, it’s still startling to think that his most recent goal in an LFC shirt came against Aston Villa nearly three months ago, just his fifth for the club so far this season (Transfermarkt).
While there remains a chance that Konate could link up with the squad before the match tomorrow, Slot will surely be planning without the Frenchman. That’ll likely see Joe Gomez come in to start alongside Virgil van Dijk at centre-back, with no natural replacements on the bench.
We hope to see the 26-year-old back with Liverpool at the earliest opportunity, but it goes without saying that – first and foremost – we hope all is OK with him and his family regarding the specific issue contributing to his absence from the squad.
You can watch footage of Liverpool’s pre-Marseille training session below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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